Review + Excerpt: Diary of a Mad Brownie by Bruce Coville

Monday, August 3, 2015

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: June 30, 2015
Source of my copy: publisher
SynopsisTold in diary entries and other “documents,” this magical, modern-day comedy by the master of funny fantasy, Bruce Coville is a story filled with laugh-out-loud humor and heart.

Angus is a brownie. No, not the kind you eat! He’s a tiny magical creature that loves to do chores. Angus has just “inherited” a new human girl, Alex. To say that Alex is messy would be an understatement. She’s a total hurricane-like disaster—and she likes it that way, thankyouverymuch! Living with each other isn’t easy but Angus and Alex soon learn there is a curse that binds them. What’s worse, it threatens Alex’s family! Working together, Angus and Alex will set out to break the curse . . . without killing each other first . . . hopefully.

Plot. The story is about a elf-like man from Scotland, a brownie, who is cursed to be sent to a girl named Alex to help clean around her room. And Alex is really, really messy.

I enjoyed Diary of a Mad Brownie because it's very consistent and it kept me reading. I never felt like it dragged and it was always interesting. I didn't feel bored at all throughout the book because I loved how it was in journal form and that there were different documents that was included so that I could have more information about the two lives of Alex and Angus's journey.

Characters. The main characters were a girl named Alex, her older brother Bennett, her younger sister Destiny, and the hot tempered brownie, Angus. I really liked the characters in the story because I loved their different personalities and how there were documents throughout the book that stated what was happening in their lives. My favorite character was Alex because even though she had a habit of misplacing things and had a big problem keeping her stuff organized, she was always had great and well-thought-out plans that helped Angus and the others get out of trouble along their journey to break the curse.

Writing and illustrations. I loved the format of this book so much more than other books because it was really easy for me to read. It took me a week to read this book and I never lost my place in the story after I put it down and pick it back up again and having the format of journal entries and other documents were very helpful. The journal entries and the supporting documents were a lot more fun and interesting to read than a regular chapter in other books. I really love the illustrations too. They look like pencil drawings and they're so nicely done. They kind of remind of my friend's drawings.

Final thoughts and would you recommend it? This book is very fast paced and it keeps readers reading! I didn't find anything wrong with it. I really like it. It was fun and funny and I highly recommend this book for readers that like to read fantasy stories.

An excerpt from Diary of a Mad Brownie by Bruce Coville

Diary of a Mad Brownie was reviewed by our youngest sister Aubrey. She's an eighth grader.